Friday, October 15th - WISTMP Year End Meeting

 Many thanks to all who were able to attend our close of season follow-up meeting.  This is the first time some of us were given the opportunity to meet all of the LOAs and volunteers, and whom walks when as a volunteer.  

 When we reached the beach, Leslie had each of the LOAs introduce themselves.  Unfortunately, Valerie Way, the LOA for Wednesday, did not attend. She stayed home since she had visited with family who have come down with COVID.  She is not ill, but wanted to stay away for us. So sorry we missed you Valerie.  

After getting out to the beach and getting comfortable, Leslie gave a summary of our nesting season.  the following items were reviewed:

• We had 26 nests, 22 False Crawls, we relocated 6 nests this year 
• We found 20 the normal way, 1 of our False Crawls became a Nest - FC06 became Nest #22, and four of our PN's (Possible Nests) became nests
• We patrolled the beach 156 days
•  First Crawl was May 14th
•  First Nest was May 25th
•  Last Nest laid was July 31st
•  Last crawl was July 31st

Introduction to our new LOA's and we hope to have others next year in training. 

The next items discussed were events from the past season 

• The thrill of seeing a laying sea turtle on the beach - we had two occurrences this year 
• The wind . . .  disappearing crawls and body pits - very frustrating
• Tracking adventurous ladies behind the dunes, making sure they were not lost and got back to the ocean - terrible mosquitoes
• Nests with a view - we had several nests laid on top of the dunes
• Relocating nests, a new experience for many - we had six relocated nests
• Two nests the same day - 6/22 - Nests 8R and 9R, 7/19 - Nests 18 and 19
•  Four False Crawls in one day - 7/ 19 - #16, #17, #18, #19
• Poor PN #07 - overwashed many times, buried in the sand about a foot shy of the bottom of the SCDNR sign - finally removed the sign right before Hurricane Ian hit
• Nest #23 - Lost to Hurricane Ian
• Hurricane Ian

 After our meeting, volunteers wanted to see the island, especially how the dunes made out after Hurricane Ian.  Some rode in the vehicles and others elected to walk.  We did our normal thing and picked up trash.  Our best "find" was this red jug - it was made in Greece.  Ricky who found the jug also did research and found the following.

The Red Jug

The following are pictures from several volunteers who enjoyed the day on the beach - looking and picking up trash.

 

At the Jetty

Looking toward NC, see the bridge to Sunset Beach

The ocean overwashed this area - several places 

The Lower end Hog Inlet 

Group Pictures

 

 

Volunteers and LOA/Leads

The Final Inventory of a Pretty Busy Season

We had a clue that this might be a busy nesting season for us (the number of nests seems to trend up in three year cycles) and it was just that: Our third busiest season since the program started in 2007.

Yesterday a small group inventoried Nest 20 which was one of those "up and over the top" nests where the mother turtle climbed up the dune face to the top, laid a nest and then fell or slid down the back side. She did finally make her was back to the ocean but it must have been a struggle. She laid that nest just behind our island Marker 8.

Hurricane Ian did a job on those dunes and you can see below that the pole that held the "8" is gone and the nest was only a few inches behind that island marker.

Cage bring removed

Getting ready to dig

Getting the eggshells to a place where they can be sorted

We never did observe this nest emerging (weather? wind??) so we didn't know what to expect. Turned out that only 10 eggs hatched and 74 were unhatched. No known reason; some nests just don't do as well as others.

Nest 20

The dunes have really taken a beating after the hurricane. Let's hope the winter will bring some of that sand back.

Since we were out there, we also gathered some things that had washed up. Barbie sure was having a bad hair day!

Bad bad hair!

But she cleaned up nicely :)

And last but not least, a lovely sight...

Sail boat in the waterway

Thanks to everyone who shared photos from the island yesterday!

Barb and Steve

October 5th - Post Hurricane Ian - checking our two remaining nests

Hi All - Kim, Valerie and I were able to drive out to the beach today. Thankfully, the Stable and Dallas on the heavy equipment cleared the trees off of the CCU beach access road, and smoothed the road over the dunes to the beach. From the beach access road toward the horse entrance, the first dune line is gone. There are places where the tidal surge went around the dunes, lots of wrack left behind the dunes in this area. The PVC pipes that held our numbered Marker Post - we have the posts for #1, #2, #3, and the last one we found was #4 - all others are gone. In this area of the beach there are large trees on the beach and lots of wrack. 

 

Beach Parking area

Beach Access Road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Kim and I attempted to find Nest #23 using GPS, and she found a hatched eggshell on the beach.  Attempting to view pictures and using GPS we marked this area to look at it again on Saturday.  She has placed the hatched egg in a glove for safe keeping.  We found no others.  I am going to print out pictures to use on Saturday, it's too hard to try to do via your cell, especially in the bright sun and the glare. 

Our best guess where Nest #23 is located

On our walk back to the truck, we marked the area with the white poles we took with us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Valerie walked on to check the rest of the beach and ended up at Nest #20 - which she found.  Kudo's to Valerie for finding this nest.  The cage was located behind the dune, and the PVC pipe was gone, but she spotted the area, including the reed that marks the nest.  We replaced the cage over the nest, and secured it with white poles that we had walked out with.  We will inventory on Saturday.

Valerie showing us where she found the cage that was protecting Nest 20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caged again, and the reed is still visible

Nest is secured again.  Another foot of dune loss and this nest would of been gone

Nest 20 - we will be back on Saturday

 At the long end of the island, where the larger dunes are located, they are sliced off like someone used a butter knife on them.  The same area that breached during Hurricane Isaias breached this time also.  This area is still draining fresh water back into the ocean.  However, this area is walk able and drive able - it is not deep like it was after Hurricane Isaias.  In this area - between Marker 7 and Marker 8 there were several places that the ocean breached behind the dune.  These areas are not draining any fresh water. 

Fresh water draining into the ocean

Kim following the water stream

The water is brown due to the fresh water tannin

 

 

 

 

Narrative by Leslie, pics by Valerie, Kim and Leslie

Saturday, October 1st - Day After Hurricane Ian

Hi All - at this time, we are stopping our daily walks on Waties Island.  There are a number of large trees down blocking both gates and blocking the Causeway Road.
 
I walked in with a friend from the Causeway Gate out to the beach.  The road from the CCU Gate out to the beach is still flooded.  The ocean breached the access road to the parking area.

The dunes on Waties were impacted greatly by the tidal surge, especially at Hogs Inlet.  Lots of trees and wrack on the beach.

I was unable to walk and check on the nests, time constraint.  I am hoping that the CCU Maintenance staff or the Stable employees come through and clear the roads.

I will keep you posted.

Narrative and Pictures by Leslie P

Tree down in the road by shed, this has been removed

Tree down before the Causeway Gate

Picture taken from the Gate looking up to the tree

The causeway, after the bridge

Large puddles, Cypress Tree down in the background

Cypress Tree down, blocking 1/2 of the road

Large puddle and view of the downed Cypress

This is another down Cypress Tree

Another downed tree, one tree double trunk

Looking back towards the tree

Another large tree across the Causeway road

The tree down by the CCU Gate

The road in toward the Beach parking area, still flooded

Beach Parking Area

Beach Access Road, ocean breached the dune

Ocean carved deep Ditch

Beach Access, the CCU sign is on the right

Soft white sand gone

Lots of wrack and trees in the surf

Tidal Surge carved into the dune

The CCU sign on lower end, our sleeve for Marker #1, we dragged large items to the dunes, will pick up when we get a vehicle out there

Looking down the beach toward Cherry Grove

Lots of wrack on the beach, along with plastic trash

Dune erosion on the lower end

Lots of erosion, large dune eroded